AMC Studios and See-Saw Films series Firebite is set to start shooting in South Australia soon with major production funding from the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC).

Expected to appear on AMC+ later this year, Firebite is a high-octane, highly original spin on the vampire genre and fantasy series that follows two First Nations Australian hunters, Tyson and Shanika, on their quest to battle the last colony of vampires in the middle of the South Australian desert.

Created, written and to be directed by celebrated First Nations Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah, Sweet Country) together with Brendan Fletcher (Mad Bastards), the series will shoot in Coober Pedy in the South Australian Outback, on the traditional Country of the Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara people of the Western Desert, and in and around Adelaide, including at the SAFC’s Adelaide Studios, on the traditional Country of the Kaurna People of the Adelaide Plains.

The eight-episode series is set in a remote desert mining town, a hive for the last vampire stronghold shipped from Britain to Australia in 1788 by the colonial superpower to eradicate the Indigenous populations.

Sheltering from the sun in the underground mines and tunnels that surround the town until the present day, the colony’s numbers and hunger is growing. War is coming. Tyson and Shanika stand vanguard to the war. But what hope does an expertly reckless man full of bravado and a 17-year-old orphan possibly have to defeat these vicious blood-thirsty parasites, when legions of warriors before them have failed?

South Australian producer Paul Ranford (Stateless, True History of the Kelly Gang) will produce the series alongside Indigenous filmmaker Dena Curtis (Elements, Grace Beside Me), who is co-producing. The writing team include Kodie Bedford and newcomers Devi Telfer and Josh Sambono.

Executive Producers for See-Saw Films are Rachel Gardner, Emile Sherman and Iain Canning, alongside Thornton and Fletcher. See-Saw’s Simon Gillis serves as Co-Executive Producer.

“This is an original and highly entertaining series we can’t wait to bring to AMC+, and one that expands our already fruitful creative partnership with See-Saw Films after very successful collaborations on the wildly original State of the Union and the rare gem that was Top of the Lake.”

Dan McDermott, President of Original Programming for AMC Networks and Co-Head of AMC Studios

“We are excited to tell this story authentically, in Australia with Indigenous storytellers, cast and crew and on Indigenous lands.”

Warwick Thornton and Brendan Fletcher said: “We are really proud of the worthy and important stories we’ve brought to the screen over the last twenty years. Now it’s time for some rock and roll.”

Read the full story on the SAFC website.

Featured Image Credit: Warwick Thornton and Brendan Fletcher, In Conversation at Sydney Film Festival, 2017.

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